Manufacturing Up, Construction Down, Medium-Sized Businesses Rock

The good news from the most recent ADP National Employment Report is that there was an increase in the number of manufacturing jobs last month -- up by 20,000. The bad news is that construction jobs decreased by 9,000 during the same period. Additionally, private sector employment increased by 217,000 across all industries from January to February.

The loss of 9,000 construction jobs wasn't entirely unexpected, since severe weather halted building in many areas of the United States. But the total decline in construction employment since its peak in January 2007 is 2,130,000, which could partially be attributed to the fact that U.S. banks continue their tight-fisted lending policies -- which puts many construction and business projects on hold.

In a perfect world, banks would be willing to hire unemployed construction workers to pick up the slack that their lending policies are helping to create. But alas, the ADP report shows that employment in the financial services sector remained flat in February.

Medium-sized businesses were the real hiring heroes last month. They are defined as those organizations with between 50 and 499 workers, and they added 104,000 new jobs. That makes the 13,000 new jobs created by large businesses seem paltry in comparison. Even small businesses, defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, created 100,000 new jobs last month.

The U.S. is still producing more jobs in the service sector than it is in the goods-producing sector, much to the dismay of many economists and American workers. According to the ADP Report, employment in the service-providing sector rose by 202,000 in February, marking 13 consecutive months of employment gains.

Employment in the goods-producing sector rose only by 15,000 jobs, and while that's the sector's fourth-consecutive monthly gain, it's probably not enough to get the American economy back on its feet.

• How to Make Your Resume Stand Out
• Approaching Retirement Age and Still Doing the Work-Life Juggle?
• Selling Yourself With Your Resume